Music to Our Ears – Bowers and Wilkins Pi6 Reviewed

In 2023 we reviewed the Pi5 S2 and Pi7 S2 earbuds from Bowers & Wilkins and loved them. As you can imagine, when Bowers & Wilkins announced their new generation Pi6 buds, we jumped at the chance to get these into our ears!

 

 

 

UNBOXING AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The Pi6 includes everything you would expect. Beyond the earbuds and case, Bowers & Wilkins includes four sets of tips (the medium set come fitted on the earbuds), and a 600mm long (and rather thick) off-white USB-C cable. Also included is a short quick start guide and safety booklet which both come wrapped in a neat cardboard fold.

The charging case measure roughly 50mm high, 64mm wide with a depth of 25mm. The case feels great in hand and despite the previous generation’s case being a relatively similar 55mm x 60mm x 27mm, the new Pi6 case feels significantly smaller – so much so that we remeasured the cases twice!

 

The new metal hinge on the Pi6 case is a welcome addition, looking both classy whilst providing a solid and satisfying slap upon closing. The front of the case has a small status LED underneath the Bowers & Wilkins branding, while the bottom has a USB-C charging port and a tiny recessed reset button. Beyond this, the case feels quite svelte in the hand – like a smooth pebble – perfectly matching the expectations the curved design implies.

 

We weren’t initially enamoured with the glacier blue colour, but it grew on us and we’re sure it will appeal to some buyers straight off the bat. If blue isn’t your thing, the Pi6s are available in white, black and a pastel green colour.

The earbuds themselves are a good size and of an all plastic design. The exterior is high gloss, while the position of the bud that resides in the ear is coloured matched in a matt finish. In between these two layers is a small rubber section which is also colour matched. A recessed grille is also visible near the outer edge.

 

Compared to the outgoing Pi5 S2 ear buds, the Pi6s have been completely redesigned. And while we quite liked the plastic and metal design of the outgoing model, the new plastic/rubber design has a shallower overall depth but have a slightly wider form factor.

 

USAGE

Following the Quick Start Guide, we had the earbuds paired with our iPhone in no time and playing music a few seconds after that. To do this we simply opened the lid of the earbuds (which began to flash blue) and in our iPhone’s bluetooth settings, added the Pi6s. Easy.

We also jumped into the Bowers & Wilkins app (iOS tested but Android also available) and added the earphones to the app. This allowed us to access other features like change the noise cancellation settings; adjust EQ (bass and treble) and customise how the touch controls function. We set the touch controls to cycle through noise cancellation on/off and pass-through on the left bud and voice assistant on the right. Like many ear buds available today, no volume control is available.

Music playback was great and felt crisper than the outgoing Pi5 S2s, delivering a nice enveloping sound. Listening to some classic 90s grunge from Nirvana and Pearl Jam really brought these little buds to life, with the dirty guitars presenting themselves front and centre. Most everything we listened to sounded great, from Beethoven’s 9th right through to Devlin’s reworked All Along the Watchtower sounded powerful and engrossing. The sound was reminiscent of the more expensive previous generation Pi7s in detail although if we were splitting hairs, they probably lacked a little of the latter’s crispness, if by a whisker.

Bass was not an issue for these blue wonders either. While it’s not ear thumping, bass reproduction was solid and provided just enough thump to drive home the point. Pop tracks like Rose’s APT bopped along with solid bass response, filling the sound stage without adversely affecting the highs. The bass wasn’t overpowering and the Pi6s created a suitably balanced and very much enjoyable sound. Like most in ear buds, they aren’t able to challenge a good pair of over ear headphones for bass but the Pi6s certainly produced an accurate and suitably deep thump when required.

As it would happen, our testing included a trans-pacific flight which provided the Pi6s ample opportunity to not only show their legs but also their noise cancelling ability.

With meal breaks and some sleep, the earbuds battery life proved adequate with B&W’s eight hour battery life (with active noise control) to be accurate. Along with the listening breaks, the 15 minute for two hour playback fast charge helped us get through the 16 hour flight without complaints.

While airplane noise is loud, the noise cancelling of these in ear buds was excellent, muffling the roar of the engines to a dull and quite reasonable background noise. In less challenging environments, the ear buds performed even better, largely eradicating most background noises and at worst drastically softening them, such as nearby voices in the office. While the transparent pass-through was also easily accessed and worked as expected, there was no granular setting to adjust the amount of noise cancelling.

We made a few phone calls while wearing the ear buds and they performed quite well in various environs. Those we spoke to reported the sound to be largely clear and accurate. On occasion we could hear some outside noise but overall, these performed acceptably for general use.

Something else we should quickly talk about is comfort. While the previous generation Pi5 S2s and Pi7 S2s were quite comfortable, the new Pi6s have improved on this front drastically. We know that how comfortable earbuds feel vary from individual to individual but in my ears, the Pi6s were very comfortable. So much so, that during my flight I kept them in most of the time, even without any music playing, just to enjoy the much reduced flight noise.

While we were largely impressed with the sound, design and general performance of these ear buds, the omission of wireless charging on the case was disappointing, especially since their predecessors had this functionality.

 

SPECS

Technical Features

High-performance DSP
True 24-bit audio connection
2-band customisable EQ
Bluetooth 5.4 with aptX™ Adaptive technology
Multipoint connectivity
Active Noise Cancellation (ANC)
USB-C charging
Fast charging support
Apple MFi Made for iPhone support

Bluetooth Codecs

aptX™ Adaptive
aptX™ Classic
AAC
SBC

Drive Units

12 mm Bio-cellulose

Microphones

3 per earbud for telephony and ANC

Battery Life & Charging

Up to 8 hours for earbuds (with ANC on) 
Additional 16 hours from charging case 
Charge time = 2 hours 
15-minute charge = 2 hours playback

Water Resistance

IP54 (earbuds)

Finishes

Cloud Grey; Forest Green; 
Glacier Blue (as tested) and 
Storm Grey

 

OVERALL

The Pi6s are a suitable upgrade from the previous generation with great sound, good battery life and a very nice design. While the case is no longer able to be charged wirelessly, everything else about these earbuds is great.

The Pi6 in ear True Wireless Earbuds are available for a street price of around $350AUD.